Off Interstate 84:take Exit 15. Go south onto CT Route 67. Take a right at the first traffic light if coming from the west, and a right at the second traffic light if coming from the east, onto Kettletown Road. Continue for approximately 3 miles on Kettletown Road. Take a right onto Georges Hill Road. Park is located on the left approximately 0.6 miles.

Fees

There is a weekend/holiday parking fee for non-residents and a campsite fee at Kettletown State Park.

Kettletown State Park, situated in the towns of Southbury and Oxford, contains 605 acres and was originally inhabited by the Pootatuck Indians, members of the Algonquin group. Early colonists reportedly traded one brass kettle for use of the land for hunting and fishing. Eventually, the settlers acquired complete rights to the area and, by 1758, the Pootatucks had either migrated to the northwest or perished.

{Kettletown State Park}

Although the Pootatucks were expert fisherman and hunters, their main occupation was farming. They raised fine crops of beans, squash, tobacco and apples. The Pootatucks developed a drum communications system which could carry a message over 200 miles in just two hours. All that remains now in the Kettletown area of this once prosperous tribe is an occasional arrowhead. In 1919, their original village was covered by the water of the Housatonic River when the Connecticut Light and Power Company constructed the Stevenson Dam to produce hydroelectric power. The resulting Lake Zoar is the fifth largest freshwater body in the state. The settlers who had used the land for dairy farming had deserted much of it as better farming land became available elsewhere.

The State of Connecticut purchased 455 of the 605 acres in Kettletown in 1950 with funds left by Edward Carrington of New Haven, which he had dedicated to the acquisition of public land in the Naugatuck Valley.

Much has happened to Kettletown since the arrival of the early settlers. Today it exists in a more natural state for all to enjoy.

{Youth Group Camp Site at Kettletown State Park} Youth Group Campsiteat Kettletown State Park

Kellogg Environmental Center, DerbyLocation: From Route 8 or the Merritt Parkway, take Route 34 West. From downtown Derby, continue 1.5 miles along 34 West. At Lakeview Terrace, turn right and take it to the end. Turn left at the stop sign onto Hawthorne Avenue. The entrance for the Kellogg Environmental Center and Osborne Homestead Museum will be 200 yards on the left.Activities: The Kellogg Environmental Center offers workshops, exhibits, nature activities, and lectures for the general public.